


Greg's Birthday Party

by Small_Hobbit



Series: The Unexpected Family [5]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Birthday, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-30
Updated: 2013-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-16 16:24:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/864104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in my "Unexpected Family" 'verse, a few weeks after Greg has been in hospital.  His leg is still causing him problems and Sherlock, Lucy (aged 8) and William (aged 7) have decided to throw him a birthday party to cheer him up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Greg's Birthday Party

**Author's Note:**

> Follows after this chapter: http://archiveofourown.org/works/781261/chapters/1617917

“Right, I’m off Sally; I’ll see you tomorrow,” Greg Lestrade called out as he left the office.

“Are you going out to celebrate tonight?”

“No, we are having proper birthday tea and I’m under strict instructions to be on time.”

“In which case I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time; just don’t eat too much cake and make yourself sick!”

By the time he was making his way up the stairs to the flat, Greg’s leg was aching badly.  He had recently taken to leaving his stick at home, determined that he could manage without it, but was forced to concede that by the end of the day, he would have been better having it to hand.  Mentally, he geared himself to look happy at whatever the children had prepared for him and to disguise the pain.

He was greeted by Lucy and William who were wearing tea towels tied round their waists.

“Good afternoon, sir,” said Lucy.  “May I take your coat?”

“Your seat is this way,” William added.  “Please follow me.”

Greg collapsed gratefully on the settee and toed off his shoes.  The children took a shoe each and went to put them away for him, pointedly holding them at a distance.  Meanwhile Sherlock appeared with a mug of coffee.

“Drink this,” he said, “whilst we put the food on the table.”

After a few minutes, tea was declared to be ready, and Greg went to sit at the table.

“You can have egg, cheese or chicken sandwiches,” Sherlock began.

“And there are sausage rolls.  It’s okay; Papa didn’t make them.”

“And we made the cheese and pineapple together.”

“But there aren’t any crisps because the packet fell on the floor and they got trodden on when Papa took the cake out of the oven.”

“So when we opened the packet, there were only crumbs.”

“It all looks lovely.  Thank you for all the trouble you have gone to.”

Once they had all eaten as much as they wanted, the small waiter and waitress removed the plates and then returned with jelly and ice cream.  This was followed by a large plate full of brightly iced cup cakes.

“So this was what you were doing yesterday, when Auntie Molly was babysitting,” Greg said.

“Yes, do you like them?”

“Oh, very much.  The colours are impressive.”

“Papa thought you might like to take some to work with you tomorrow.”

“I’m sure he did.”  The idea of offering Anderson a fluorescent orange or green cupcake made Greg smile rather more than he felt it should.

Once Greg had eaten two of the cupcakes and declared that he was full and really couldn’t manage another one, Sherlock and both children departed to the kitchen.

They returned in procession, with Sherlock carrying a large cake with lighted candles.  They all sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and then Sherlock placed the cake on the table.  Unfortunately, the icing hadn’t set properly and it started to flow into the middle of the cake, which appeared to have sunk.  Two of the candles slid down with the icing and toppled over. Part of the cake started to smoulder.

Sherlock, who had long experience of things catching fire, took prompt action and poured a glass of lemonade over the cake, thus extinguishing the fire before it had a chance to take properly.  The children, meanwhile, equally experienced at things being set on fire, had stood back from the table and were preparing to evacuate the flat should it prove necessary.

Greg looked at Sherlock and started to laugh, which set everyone else off.  In years to come this would be referred to as ‘the time Papa accidentally set fire to Dad’s birthday cake.’

Since they had finished tea, Greg sat back on the settee.

“And now it’s time for you to have your birthday present,” William announced.

“But you gave me presents this morning.”

“This is another one,” Lucy said.  “And it’s a special one.”

With a flourish, Sherlock presented Greg with an envelope.  He opened it to find a picture of a cottage with the dates 28 July to 10 August written underneath it.  On the back was a description of the cottage, which was set in a large garden and not far from the sea. 

“I believe you already have those dates booked as annual leave,” Sherlock said.

“Yes, but I was planning on taking the children out for days, whilst you worked.”

“I can always bring my laptop with me.  This way there will be less walking involved.  And I understand that children can be entertained very easily on the beach.”

“It does sound ideal.”

“And Papa says there’s a stall that sells lots of different flavoured ice creams.”

“In which case I can think of no possible objections to going.  Thank you very much, all of you, for a very lovely birthday.”


End file.
